FIU bridge collapse and the suppression of information

The shady details of the imminent failure of new and innovative infrastructure

Maria C. Benoit – Team 8

HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW

When the Florida International University Bridge collapsed on March 15, 2018, the University received speculation from the Miami Herald, which ultimately led to further investigation from the Federal Authorities in regards to keeping confidential documents away from the media, suppressing information from the public and further exercising its valid federal regulatory authority amid the bridge collapse. This decision was primordially based on the influence of electronic media on a global level.

On March 15, the FIU pedestrian bridge located on Tamiami Trail (SW 8th Street) at the main FIU Modesto Madique Campus, collapsed. Resulting in the killing of six people, hospitalizing nine, and injuring others. In less than one day, the accident was reported by the Miami Herald and other local and international news channels due to an undetected design flaw. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) cited five companies for seven worker-safety violations, mainly including: designer FIGG Bridge Engineers, builder Munilla Construction Management (MCM); Bolton Perez & Associates, which provided engineering and inspection services, and the Structural Group of South Florida, concrete contractor. FIU and state transportation officials continue to withhold other critical records under instructions from the National Transportation Safety Board, stating their publication could threaten the integrity of its probe. The trajectory of this event was shaped by the Federal Authorities in regards to keeping confidential documents away from the media and suppressing information from the public.

The purpose of this assignment is three-fold and will be divided into individual sections in this paper: the first section, how we know what we know will analyze how we know what we know about this tragic accident. Implementing the use of critical perspective through this first section will be essential in order to challenge assumptions and expand the bounds of debate surrounding the bridge collapse. In the second section, the application of the rhetorical triangle will be used in order to ostracize the role of information suppression of the federal authorities from the public and media, as well as to focus on how the public got the information and how it might have been influenced, through manipulation and suppression of public documents and critical records. In the third section, the purpose will be to determine how a person, movement or technology influenced the collapse. Moreover,concentrating on the influence of stress created by their rapid building method, the pressure of the high fanfare from the success of the bridge, and finally how information was conveyed and created during the collapse in order to keep a low profile under the scrutiny of electronic media.

The first assumption involves the contracting of FIGGs and MCM to build a successful bridge despite multiple violations in the past. Munilla construction management, a Miami based construction firm won the $14.2 million contract to build the pedestrian walkway that would connect the FIU campus to the city of Sweetwater. The partially built 175-foot, 950-ton section of the bridge had been assembled on the side of the highway and moved into place Saturday to great fanfare, collapsing only 5 days later, trapping cars underneath and leaving at least six people dead. In the same fashion, MCM was also involved in the 2016 bridge collapse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. A review of OSHA showed that MCM had been cited for 11 safety violations, three of them being serious between 2014 to 2017. Alleging that MCM “failed to utilize reasonable care in the design, planning, inspection and maintenance” in addition to having “incompetent, inexperienced, and careless employees.” As for FIGG Bridge Engineers, a Tallahassee firm, was fined in 2012 after 90-ton section of a bridge it was building in Virginia crashed onto railroad tracks below, injuring four workers. Records showed that FIGG did not properly inspect a girder and had not obtained written consent from its manufacturer before modifying it. FIUs incompetence and impulsive decision making in hiring these two problematic companies together despite their history of code violations, was ultimately responsible for the inadequate building method for this pedestrian bridge, that resulted in yet another deadly bridge collapse. Some debates suggest that the bridge’s complexity played a role in its failure, stating that “simplicity in design is not synonymous with safety, just as innovative design cannot be equated with lack of safety”. This statement is a direct reflection of the past violations that MCM and FIGG’s had incurred. The credibility, validity and reliability of both of these firms are negatively correlated, but yet FIU assumed that these two firms were the best fit to tackle the $14.2 million project that was supposed to be a hallmark of the faster, cheaper and less risky method of bridge-building that was being directly promoted by the university. The misjudgment and irresponsibility of the university’s decision to contract two firms with high risk profiles was a definite premise for the deadly failure of the pedestrian bridge.

The role of information suppression from the federal authorities

A key concrete support truss in the doomed FIU pedestrian bridge developed worrisome cracks 10 days before the structure was lifted into place over the Tamiami Trail. Cracks in concrete are common and often minor, but given the unconventional design of FIU’s bridge, that should at the very least have prompted work to stop and an in depth diagnosis to be conducted. Instead, FIGG engineers saw little reason to undertake a full reassessment that would’ve taken days if not weeks. the assumption made by FIGG bridge engineers in response to the issue of the cracking on march 13 revealed that major project players were aware of the cracking but came to the conclusion that they posed no safety issue, should’ve signaled a red flag for all operations on the bridge to come to a halt and immediately reshape their design and materials used. The lack of safety precaution shows the unreliability of FIGG and the lack of leadership and responsibility in behalf of FIU’s engineering team. In a Florida DOT voicemail transcript of a message from an employee of the project engineering firm FIGG reportedly stated “we’ve taken a look at it and, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done, but from a safety perspective we don’t see that there’s any issue there, so we’re not concerned about it from that perspective, although obviously cracking is not good and something’s going to be done to repair that”. They chose to ignore the severity of the cracks and chose to belittle the safety hazard it posed to the integrity of the project. Not only did they ignore the cracks, but they also suppressed the evidence. The information released by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) outlined the next steps it would take as part of its investigation including forensic examinations of the bridges structural elements, destructive testing of core and steel samples, and an overall evaluation of the bridges materials and construction process. The results did not point out “any noticeable material issues”, and further examinations of the bridge deck near the area of failure determined that the undamaged concrete and embedded reinforcing steel investigated were in line with the design specifications. There are various factors that should be analyzed from the conveyed information, firstly, why were they able to come to a specific conclusion with the tested undamaged concrete stating that it was specific to the design. But when conveying information on the materials and construction processes, they simply belittled the situation again stating there was no noticeable material issues? The public wants to know those specific material issues, big or small. This only points to a source of secrecy made by the NTSB. The photographs and documents of the cracking released in response to public records request from the Miami Herald, show that FIU’s construction and engineering team discovered potentially problematic cracks in the bridge earlier than officials previously acknowledged.

The cracks were found in late February at the base of the diagonal support member 11 at the north end end of the span. Three independent engineers who examined the photos, records and bridge blueprints at the Herald’s request concurred that the cracks were a red flag signaling potentially critical structural problems. Outside experts have zeroed in on that truss member and have identified in plans as number 11 being “under-designed” that is, not strong enough to withstand the pressure from the weight of the bridge it was supposed to hold up. FIU and state transportation officials continue to withhold other critical records under instruction from the NTSB. The main rhetorical appeal that can be deduced from this information is the mode of persuasion, specifically using ethos to appeal to the authority or credibility of the presenter, FIGG engineers. This can be deduced from the DOT voicemail where the head engineer ensured that there was no need to worry about a safety hazard, and emphasized that they will take extra preventive and inspectional measures towards these cracks. FIGG engineers were able to persuade FIU’s team of engineers to not take any re-designing actions, and to trust in their years of experience.

Influence of electronic media

The role of social media after the FIU bridge collapsed was used as a platform to express anger and frustration. When the bridge dropped on March 15th, the response on social media was instantaneous, especially twitter. The inaccurate and biased comments stirred up different types of emotions all over the internet, it was a matter of time the social media trolls started attacking MCM using the hashtag #FIUBridge. Days later MCM deleted their twitter account protecting themselves from all the backlash.

During this event it reminds us that anyone with a smartphone and a social media account can be a reporter with or without the credentials. Graphic photos and videos were posted all over social media creating more anger and confusion. Take for example this twitter post:

People can easily scroll through this picture, not even bother to read the caption and jump into conclusions that the red liquid is blood just to make it more of a spectacle to talk about in social media.

SOURCES

Nehamas, Nicholas. “How Big a Role Did State Play in FIU Bridge? fiu bridge collapse Scott denies any state role in failure of bridge, but records cast doubt Florida Gov. Rick Scott says the Florida Department of Transportation had minimal responsibility in Florida International University’s pedestrian bridge collapse on March 15. Records show the state was more involved..” Miami Herald, The (FL), 1st State ed., sec. News, 22 Oct. 2018, p. 1A, www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220294730.html

Garvin, Glenn. “BRIDGE COLLAPSE AFTERMATH A plan to transform Sweetwater into college town is now on hold For decades, FIU and city officials have kicked around the idea of turning Sweetwater into a college town like Berkeley or Cambridge. But the disaster when the bridge collapsed on March 15 was a huge setback..” Miami Herald, The (FL), 1st State ed., sec. News, 21 Oct. 2018, p. 1A.

“”The cracking is not good”: Engineer’s chilling warning days before 950-ton bridge collapsed onto road killing 10; The warning emerged first victim has been named as 18-year-old student Alexa Duran who was driving with her friend Richie Humble across the bridge in Florida when it gave way.” mirror.co.uk. (March 17, 2018 Saturday 4:23 PM GMT ): 1343 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2018/10/24.

Ever since the inception of the United States, presidential elections have always found a way to bring out the tribalism in Americans. Every 4 years citizens are infected with a political fever that motivates them to head out to the polls and let their voices be heard. After all, is said and done, whether a Republican or Democrat wins, a certain sense of normality returns to the overall consciousness of the nation and people go about their daily lives. This was usually the normal pattern, but all of that seems to have ended in 2016 after the election of Donald Trump. The election of Trump exposed a sobering reality about the United States, and that is how incredibly divided Americans really are. I argue that one of the most polarizing forces today in American culture is the effect of partisan mainstream media news outlets.

The rift between Americans has never before been so apparent: “The two Americas watch different news. They read very different books, listen to different music, and watch different television shows. Increasingly, they now live lives according to two widely different traditions,” stated Victor Hanson. Americans devour completely different modes of information and media in order to satisfy their ideological confirmation bias. As George McLuhan once said, “People don’t actually read newspapers—they get into them every morning like a hot bath.” Every day Americans bathe themselves in a variety of cool mediums ranging from TV’s to smartphones and it is through these mediums in which the message is being manipulated to divide.

Partisan outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News have taken a dramatic shift in tone following the election, normalizing hostile attitudes towards opposing segments of the population who think ideologically differently. Partisan media is effective at dividing because these outlets take viewers who are already polarized and make them even more extreme. “Partisan media, therefore, heightens mass polarization not by turning moderates into extremists, but rather by further polarizing those who are already away from the political center,” stated Mathew Levendusky. Tension and raw emotion have always been fixtures in American democracy, but “political scientists who specialize in partisan division, suggest that politics is changing how Americans think and behave in new and unsettling ways,” according to Jeremy Peters. Currently, Americans are unknowingly self-segregating themselves into ideological ghettos of the mind.

“When like-minded people gather in groups, they tend to become more extreme in their views”. In the quest to satisfy the primal need for confirmation bias, partisan outlets have manipulated logos and exploited pathos while attacking the ethos of opposing viewpoints. The ever-increasing pushback to view an issue from an opposing perspective could be viewed as obsessive. “Such obsessiveness calls to mind Winston Churchill’s definition of a fanatic as ‘one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject’” said Michael Knowles. The new technological mediums and messages have also dramatically reshaped western political institutions.

Mainstream media can arguably be viewed as a political institution with labels such as the “fourth estate,” an institution which has no checks and balances and has a keen interest in controlling the status quo. “The story of the 2016 Republican nomination often pits the media against the institutional structure, suggesting that extensive media coverage helped Trump gain the Republican nomination” (Azari). “The electronically induced technological extensions of our central nervous systems are continuously in a whirlpool of information movement and are thus enabling man to incorporate within himself the whole of mankind”(McLuhan). Donald Trump was able to exploit highly interactive cool technological mediums such as smartphones and applications like Twitter, inserting himself in the collective consciousness through a single tweet. In the process, he was able to retribalize the Republican Party, framing himself as the tribal chieftain and winning him the nomination.

“The media’s main institutional role comes from repeating, rather than challenging, promises, frameworks, and narratives” (Azari). It’s this repetition that is core to partisan media outlets which are defined as “opinionated media where stories are framed, spun, and slanted so that certain political agendas are advanced” (Levendusky). The hosts package the news in a way to help people make sense of the world, creating a “self-protective enclave” of consistent messages and a framework to understand current events. These programs also engage in biased story selection covering stories that enforce their views and avoiding stories that downplay them.

“How we respond to a civil conflict depends on what we know about it. That, in turn, depends on where we get our information.”(Zhukov and Baum).The dangers of partisan media do not only stop at making it harder to reach common ground but “under the right conditions, warring parties can ‘weaponize’ reporting bias into a form of information warfare – using the media to shape the preferences of an intended audience to their advantage (Zhukov, and Baum). What we see the partisan media engaged in is the systemic exploitation of human goals: “Humans have two broad classes of goals: accuracy goals (the desire to reach the correct conclusion) and directional goals (the desire to reach the preferred conclusion, i.e., the conclusion that supports our existing beliefs) (Levendusky). The process of manipulating pathos and logos to reach the desired outcome prevents the opportunity for audiences to engage in critical thinking.“ As man is tribally metamorphosed by the electric media, we all become Chicken Littles” (McLuhan).

In conclusion, America finds itself in a unique point in time divided like never before. With new mediums of information continuously evolving and insufficient understanding of the long-term impact on humans, the future looks blurry. Echoes of the past and talks of a potential civil war now are regular talking points on partisan news outlets from both sides. This is the new norm in America, and a country that remains divided will surely fall. Only time will tell if the temperature and rhetoric will tone down in the country. Hopefully, for the good of all mankind, it will. History doesn’t always repeat itself but it certainly does repeat certain rhythms.

The U.S. government risks neglecting the needs of LGBT youth with regard to sex education. Therefore, it is planning tointroduce sex education as a mandatory subject in schools across the U.S. and outside the borders by 2020. The media coverage of this news has been growing in recent years, providing strong and diverse arguments to support the concept and analyzing the negative impact that the lack of information about sex education has had on society.

Discrimination has always been present throughout history, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about religion, race, genre, nationality or homosexuality, people around the world are constantly judging. But are they truly wrong? Aren’t we all the same regardless our differences?

In the last years the LGBT community has become a little more accepted by the world, making them feel supported by big iconic people, like celebrities and even politicians. In 2015, the President of the US, Barack Obama took a big step when he decided to legalize gay marriage, saying, “This ruling is a victory for America. This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts: When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free. This ruling is a victory for America,”, equality is the goal.

Nevertheless, the young LGBT community, in particular, have gone through very difficult times due to the fact that the root of this problem begins at schools, the place where most teenagers grow up and have the raw need to express themselves as they want, need, or believe they are. However, it’s not a secret to anyone, that children can be very mean, bullying has always been part of schools over the world. That’s why the government of the U.S. came to a solution, closely related to the former, to implement LGBT history in schools, by showing the hardship the LGBT community has faced in history, in a sense showing that it’s not a subject to be abusive with.

To start off, religion is almost the first word that comes to people’s mind when we mention a topic related to homosexuals, lesbians, gays, and transgenders, arguing that God made the man to be the woman and vice versa, altering this process would affect not only the natural reproduction, but also the future children and generations.

In the article, “Faith Leaders Say Sex Education Must Be LGBT-Inclusive.” We can find a good sense of rhetorical appeal, mostly ethos, by providing the signature of a a group of faith leadersthat penned an open letter to Education Secretary Justine Greening, urging her to ensure that all schools not only promote acceptance of the LGBT community, but also demanding to have a free and safe space to talk and get informed about the sex education. These signatures provide credibility because they are from some faith influential people around the world, like the Bishop of Buckingham, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Chair of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy. Counter arguingthat religion is not the main reason for the inconsistency of educating students in public schools.

Another well-developed source of information, that provides statistics, surveys, and facts from credible sources is the PBS online newspaper. In this case they show how the early knowledge at schools, appears to be linked to a decrease in adolescent suicide, based on a new analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics. The researchers found that suicide attempts by high school students decreased by 7 percent in states that have previous sex education at schools. The fact that suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S. and the second for people aged 10 to 24, is sadden enough to find in this article that young LGBT people are particularly affected, attempting suicide at four times the rate of straight youth, according to the Trevor Project, an organization that works to prevent suicide among LGBT youth. It is a clear demonstration of logos, by providing credible evidence and numbers, but also presenting pathos, by touching the readers emotions and feelings.

And last but not least, in the source “LGBT youth in America’s schools,”authors Jason Cianciotto and Sean Cahill, provide commentary and research regarding the treatment of LGBT youth in public schools in the U.S., more specifically how local, state, and federal legislation play a role in how discrimination within public schools are addressed. There is no real protection for transgender students in the American school system. This account uses rhetorical strategies and real life occurrences to inform and persuade the audience, reaffirming that the U.S. government risks neglecting the needs of LGBT youth with regard to sex education.Leading to an alarming call to all of those school board members and officials determining school policy, as well as researchers training the next generation of school administrators and informing future policy and practice.

To conclude, the social media coverage is doing a god job, so far, by proving diverse reasons of why the U.S. has plans or ideas of implementing sex education as a mandatory subject in schools, mainly because those children feeling oppressed by the educational system are, like it or not, future American citizens, and the duty of the U.S. government is to provide a health and secure environment for the entire population. Having educated students, might prevent or at least reduce the chance of bullying occurring, it is a simple way of reducing discrimination, and improving the general knowledge of grade school students.

Having said this, I do believe that even when the sources mentioned before provide good rhetorical appeals, more information is needed, this news should receive more attention, and should also be passed on to more people, but most important should not stay in just words, but actions instead.

Works Cited.

This scholarly journal describes a study correlating improper sexual education and higher rates of STDs in the state of Louisiana. The results of the study showed that many Louisiana college students don’t receive proper sexual education in college and some never received any. This scholarly journal does a good job of using the study to show their main point of how important sex education is, even though it only involves students from Louisiana.

In his article, Duffy argues that religion is not the main reason for the inconsistency of educating students in public schools. A group of faith leaders supportive of LGBTQ sexual education are striving to enhance better equipped sexual education programs in public schools and are working with the government through petitions to make these changes happen. This article strongly informs about the LGBTQ community and will be used in my research to address how religion interferes with LGBTQ sex ed.

In this book, authors Jason Cianciotto and Sean Cahill provide commentary and research regarding the treatment of LGBT youth in public schools in the U.S., more specifically how local, state, and federal legislation play a role in how discrimination within public schools are addressed. There is no real protection for transgender students in the American school system. This account uses rhetorical strategies and real life occurrences to inform and persuade the audience.

This article by Corinne Segal mainly focuses on the LGBTQ’s community suicide rates.

According to Segal, having same-sex marriage in states leads to fewer suicide rates in high schools by 7%. The author strongly points out that those same-sex laws reflected major trends in social media that lead to a rise in being apart of LGBTQ more accepting, by providing valid surveys and facts from credible sources. Segal wanted to inform others of the LGBT community also to realize that legalization is lowering suicide rates.

In this article published by the Human Rights Campaign, the lack of LGBTQ sexual education in public schools is discussed. Children are not properly educated on LGBTQ youth and those who identify as other than heterosexual often struggle with sex ed, and feedback from surveys show evidence that parents who have children in public schools are for inclusive LGBTQ sexual education. The author’s perspective is for involving LGBTQ in these educational programs. It’s important because it shows negligence within the LGBTQ community in public schools.

In this article, Rooney and Mirza focus on the discrimination that the LGBTQ community faces in healthcare. It discusses several key examples of the effects of the discrimination has caused those who are apart of the community as well as incorporating statistics given by a 2017 CAP survey to put into perspective how they were treated, providing ethos to their work.

Jacqueline, excellent annotated bibliography. Your

sources are authoritative, relevant, and current.

The thesis is unique and creative. I look forward to the

final essay. I have edited the annotations below.

Thesis: Kylie Jenner is one of the most influential celebrities in American pop culture. Her recent pregnancy created a firestorm of positive, negative, and sensational coverage. Mainstream media has a fascination with celebrities, but media should not exploit their very young children.

Source One:

MEDIA EXPOSURE DURING INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD: the Effects of Content and Context on Learning and Development. SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PU, 2018.

(FIU Library Catalog)

This book discusses the different implications of exposing children to media at an early age. This source helps usto understand the possible repercussions of Kylie Jenner’s newborn being exposed to social media at only a few days old. The book introduces research and theories on how this kind of parenting and social influence can affect a child in the long run.

Source Two:

“Furious Kylie Jenner deletes ALL public pictures of baby Stormi after fans mock her for cutting daughter out of shot; The 20-year-old reality star came under fire for sharing a snap of just half her baby girl’s face – while Kylie herself took centre stage.” Daily Mirror [London, England], 11 June 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A542135551/ITOF?u=miam11506&sid=ITOF&xid=f4d6c8bc. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.

(General OneFile)

This article brings the topic of discussion full circle by incorporating a real-life example. It discusses a specific occasion about howwhensocial media affected Kylie Jenner and her child directly. Direct quotes and sources help further the argument.

This article emphasizes the fact that even if people do not identify with celebrities, celebrities likely still have some influence in their lives. Analysis of the influences of celebrities helps usto understand why society has a fascination with them. It discusses the power society gives celebrities directly and indirectly. given to celebrities given to celebrities by society whether they do it directly or not.

This newspaper article discusses the possible reasons behind why society actively pays attention to celebrities’ and their actions. It proposes that celebrity trends affect the daily lives of people. How the public acquires this information, and how often, applies to Kylie Jenner. The article also acquired and how often it is acquired applies to Kylie Jenner and questions how much of all the gossip about her is accurate.

This Journal article discusses the study that investigated how credible celebrities’ social media posts are.are on social media. Social media has little restrictions about what can be put online. Celebrities can make their own image and change the perception society has ofthem. This article discusses those topics more in depth and has data to support it.

This online article weighs the pros and cons of early exposure to social media: How the reality and virtual reality differ and how they manifest in children under a certain age. Analysis of media exposure can help determine whether or not Kylie Jenner’s new born daughter’sexposure is exploitation.

MARIA BENOIT

Fascinating topic, of course, and your bibliography is excellent. It’s current, authoritative, and highly relevant. I look forward to your final essay. A few items do not have the evaluations. The thesis is not at the top, as Prof. Pearson requested. But it’s fine.

This article goes into detail about the aftermath of the bridge collapse, specifies the names of the people that were lost.

Nehamas, Nicholas. “How Big a Role Did State Play in FIU Bridge? fiu bridge collapse Scott denies any state role in failure of bridge, but records cast doubt Florida Gov. Rick Scott says the Florida Department of Transportation had minimal responsibility in Florida International University’s pedestrian bridge collapse on March 15. Records show the state was more involved..” Miami Herald, The (FL), 1st State ed., sec. News, 22 Oct. 2018, p. 1A, www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220294730.html.

This online newspaper article describes the discrepancies the government has pertaining to the bridge collapse.

Garvin, Glenn. “BRIDGE COLLAPSE AFTERMATH A plan to transform Sweetwater into college town is now on hold For decades, FIU and city officials have kicked around the idea of turning Sweetwater into a college town like Berkeley or Cambridge. But the disaster when the bridge collapsed on March 15 was a huge setback..” Miami Herald, The (FL), 1st State ed., sec. News, 21 Oct. 2018, p. 1A.

This article goes in depth about the bridge collapse. It provides enough details to support my insight.

“”The cracking is not good”: Engineer’s chilling warning days before 950-ton bridge collapsed onto road killing 10; The warning emerged first victim has been named as 18-year-old student Alexa Duran who was driving with her friend Richie Humble across the bridge in Florida when it gave way.” mirror.co.uk. (March 17, 2018 Saturday 4:23 PM GMT ): 1343 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2018/10/24.

This article provides more details of the accident that are imperative to my essay.

In this part of the book, Mariana, a transgender activist speaks about her experience of her not allowed back to her college because of her name change back in 1999. Penny makes an example of this because in Chile your ID card is the most credible, nothing else will be believed. In this section of the book the author talks about gender recognition in Chile.

In this article it talks about Daniela Vega who is the actor for a movie called “A Fantastic Woman”. Daniela Vega is actually a transgender woman.She explains how in Chile one has to use the ID card for virtually everything and not being about to change their names on the ID makes trans people frustrated.

In this news article it explains that Chile has passed a transgender law allowing people to legally changing their name

Delgado, Jaime Barrientos, and Manuel Cárdenas Castro. “Construction and Validation of a Subjective Scale of Stigma and Discrimination (SISD) for the Gay Men and Transgender Women Population in Chile.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy, vol. 11, no. 3, 2014, pp. 187–198., doi:10.1007/s13178-014-0150-0.

It is a study about how people in Chile discriminate gay man and trans women

In this part of the book, Mariana, a transgender activist speaks about her experience of her not allowed back to her college because of her name change back in 1999. Penny makes an example of this because in Chile your ID card is the most credible, nothing else will be believed. In this section of the book, the author talks about gender recognition in Chile.

In this article it talks about Daniela Vega who is the actor for a movie called “A Fantastic Woman”. Daniela Vega is actually a transgender woman.She explains how in Chile one has to use the ID card for virtually everything and not being about to change their names on the ID makes trans people frustrated.

In this news article, it explains that Chile has passed a transgender law allowing people to legally changing their name

Delgado, Jaime Barrientos, and Manuel Cárdenas Castro. “Construction and Validation of a Subjective Scale of Stigma and Discrimination (SISD) for the Gay Men and Transgender Women Population in Chile.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy, vol. 11, no. 3, 2014, pp. 187–198., doi:10.1007/s13178-014-0150-0.

It is a study about how people in Chile discriminate against gay men and trans women.